Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations earlier this month helped bring about record figures for London’s hotel industry.
According to figures released by STR Global, a provider of market data to the hotel industry and a company that tracks more than 41,000 daily rooms around London across all segments, London hotels achieved occupancy of 90.5 percent on Saturday June 2, and even the Sunday night, which is traditionally poor for hotels, saw an occupancy figure of 79.3 percent.
Commenting on the figures, Elizabeth Randall, managing director at STR Global, said, ‘The Jubilee weekend has been a fantastic opportunity for London to once again showcase its heritage and pageantry and to be under the spotlight as a destination capable of handling large scale events. Across all hotel segments, performance increased during Saturday and Sunday, as the festivities came to their climax. However due to the public holidays during Monday and Tuesday (4-5 June), the missing business and meeting travellers impacted the weekday performances.’
The hotel trade did not fare as well for the rest of the holiday week, with increased tourist numbers failing to compensate for the loss in the regular business bookings, and occupancy declining by 38.9 percent to 57.6 percent, compared to the previous year.
Based on revenue per available room (REVPAR) the Sunday night of the holiday weekend saw the best growth, with economy class hotels benefiting most with a REVPAR that was up by 54.6 percent.
The good news for London’s hotel industry is set to continue as the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games bring a visitor bonanza to the nation’s capital city.
